Jeah, Whatever

[still Ryan]

I lightly shook Natalie awake as we landed at the Athens airport. From here, we would take a car to the isles stop where we would then get on a boat and be taken to Santorini.

She opened her eyes and looked at me.

“We’re here already?” She questioned, rubbing her eyes.

“Jeah we are,” I grinned. She threw her bag at me and rolled her eyes as she walked off the plane. I deserved that.

When we got in the car, Natalie rolled down the window and took in the city of Athens.

“Oh my gosh! Ryan I want to ride a vespa here!” She said excitedly as we saw the men and women riding around on scooters.

“How about we do that when we get to Santorini,” I reasoned, noticing she wanted to stop and ride one right now. She smiled softly at me and kept watching everything outside the window.

When we got to Santorini, we got into the vacation house we would be staying in for the two weeks and Natalie changed into a sundress and a pair of Toms. She let her hair wave down.

“When did you put wave in your hair?” I asked, finally noticing more and saying something about it.

“Oh, Andrea did it for me on Christmas Eve, I guess we haven’t face timed since,” she laughed, realizing I never saw it.

“I like it,” I assured her. Natalie came and sat down on my lap.

“And I like vespas, let’s go,” she stood up and dragged me out of the house and we walked to the center of the town to get vespas.

I carried Natalie on my back the whole way from our house to the center. It was quite a long walk but it was a good way to sneak some working out in.

And it was also nice to have her not complaining about having to walk.

I paid the guy for the vespas for the duration of our time here, figuring Natalie would want to do this daily. She chose a teal-blue color vespa as I went for a sleek black one. We had our helmets on, ready to go but Natalie looked scared.

“Do you not want to do this anymore?” I asked.

“I don’t want to ride alone,” she admitted. I rolled my eyes a little bit and looked at her.

“Just ditch yours and hop on,” I said.

“But we paid for two and what if I want to ride alone later?” She asked. The girl thought out everything.

“I’ll come back and pick it up just for you,” I promised. Natalie nodded and hopped on with me. She held my waist tightly and rested her head on my shoulder.

“Be careful, you have precious cargo,” she warned me.

“I know, my body is my job,” I joked with her.

“I was talking about my beautiful Harry Winston,” She said, I shook my head and sped off and took us around the city of Santorini.

“Ryan, slow the hell down!” Natalie yelled as she held me tighter, I just rolled my eyes and took us around the traffic circle, allowing us to see the city from the vespa.

I felt Natalie relax into me. I took us around, I didn’t know where the hell I was going but I followed the coast and led us to the beach.

Natalie hopped off the vespa and took off her helmet and shoes. I led her to the beach and we walked down the shoreline, hand in hand.

“So this is romantic,” Natalie pointed out, laughing.

“Yes, I try really hard as you can tell,” I said sarcastically. Natalie began getting closer to the water.

I figured now was the time.

“Natalie, I want you to know how much you mean to me,” I said, we stopped walking and she stood and looked at me.

“Ryan, you mean not that much,” she laughed, being sarcastic.

“No, Natalie, I’m serious, you mean the world to me. I keep thinking of all these scenarios and I can’t think of any different ones without you in them. The idea of losing you, it freaks me out,” I said to her getting more nervous.

“Ryan,” Natalie touched my face, she was taking in the fact that I was being sentimental.

“And Natalie, I just, I don’t know, I want you to know that I love you,” I blurted out, keeping the eye contact. She looked at me confused and unsure of what to say, I could tell that she was processing the fact that I was telling her this.

“Ryan, I love you too,” she said, jumping into my arms for a welcoming hug. I could tell she was freaked out, that she was scared at the fact she had let the words come out of her mouth.

I felt her laughing on my neck.

“What’s funny, Nat?” I asked pulling away. Natalie smiled at me.

“You love me and that’s crazy, because come on, you’re Ryan Lochte and you love me. I’m just, I’m happy Ry,” she was beaming.

I did the cheesiest thing I have ever done, I pulled her into my arms and spun her around. When I sat her down, she pulled me by my hands and led me further in the ocean.

“Natalie, what the heck are we doing??” I questioned.

“I don’t know, I just felt like it would be fun to submerge in the ocean,” she said, taking my hand and running against the waves and we fell into the ocean together. We came up for air and I took her into my arms.

“I love you, Natalie,” I said again. She crashed her lips onto mine, allowing me to taste the salt from the water linger onto my lips.

“I love you too, Ryan,” she said to me. We played in the water for a little while before going back to the house. Natalie and I hopped in a shower before she put on one of my shirts and nothing more.

“What are we going to do for dinner?” I asked her. She shrugged. We had nothing here.

“I have to put on real clothes don’t I?” She frowned. I took us to the fresh market after Natalie was dressed and we looked at the cooking options.

“I don’t know how to cook,” Natalie laughed. I shrugged and grabbed a few things. The Greek man looked at me and laughed.

“These are not things you cook together,” he laughed at me in broken English.

“Neither of us have a clue what we’re doing,” I replied honestly. The man laughed some more.

“You go to the mamma house then, she make you dinner,” he told us, Natalie and I didn’t like the idea of going to a stranger’s house for dinner.

“Are there restaurants we can go to?” Natalie asked.

“You are in Santorini, not Egypt, you can go out,” the man said with a lot of emotion, clearly upset we turned down his offer.

I led Natalie to the center of town.

“Haven’t you been to Greece?” She asked.

“Yes but never here, remember this is why we picked it?” I said. She nodded and leaned on me as we walked.

“Ryan, I’m going to die of starvation,” she complained. I put her on my back once more as we searched for a restaurant.

Finally finding one, Natalie and I went in and found that it was not just a restaurant but also a place for dancing and live music.

Greeks are emotional people. They are loud and like to have a good time, coming in, they all shouted hello and as we ordered, the couples danced amongst each other while women shouted across the restaurant. It was really like New Yorkers all getting together.

“So now that we’re in love and all, we should probably talk logistics,” I heard Natalie say faintly over the loud voices.

“What do you mean?” I asked loudly, leaning in to hear.

“Well I’m assuming this means you’re in it for the long haul,” she said with uncertainty.

I thought about it. I mean, I think I’m in it, but by saying I love you, is that what girls begin to think, getting married?

“Natalie, I do love you, but I’m not like, ready for that,” I said, trying to explain without being hurtful. She looked at me confused.

“You’re not ready to live in the same city?” She questioned.

Well I’m dumb.

“Oh, I thought you meant something else, but a city, yeah,” I said embarrassed.

“So I’m thinking about what would be best, me moving to Gainesville or you coming to Manhattan,” she said.

I really didn’t want to talk logistics at dinner on vacation but I knew it would help Natalie work out a plan.

“Well my coach is in Florida, I don’t want to leave him. I’m training, in four years, yeah I’d leave but not now,” I explained to her. I saw her face fall a little.

“Sure, that makes sense. So maybe I could start looking for places in Gainesville, and I will have to tell my father I need to relocate to the Jacksonville office,” she said.

“Natalie, that’s an hour and a half commute without traffic,” I told her. She nodded once more.

“I can fly in if I have to, no big,” she smiled and took my hand, “this is what we want, right?” She asked. I could tell I threw her off.

“Natalie, I am so beyond happy to think that I could be living in the same city as you,” I promised. She bent forward and gave me a kiss.

“Gosh enough with the heavy, lovey jank, we’re on vacation,” she said, standing up and pulling me to dance with her.

I didn’t know what these Greek people were doing. Jumping around and screaming is what I picked up on.

The dancing people lifted Natalie and myself up in chairs and carried us around; this was to bring us good luck and a life full of love and prosperity.

So far, it seemed like this dance was working.

We spent our two weeks in Greece blissfully, both of us deciding to turn off our phones and ignore the world apart from each other and where we were now. Our time on the island was full of sex in every location we saw fitting to have sex at and we enjoyed the beach and local shopping.

But now it was time to face the reality of life in New York. And for Natalie to tell her dad the news.

Needless to say, I was beyond nervous.

“Don’t worry, Ry, I’m not breaking up with the company, I’m just telling my dad the news,” she said to me as we landed at the JFK. We went out and soon found Andrea.

“Oh you’re back and you both look so tan!” She said, hugging both of us, she immediately saw Natalie’s ring.

“OH MY GOSH. That ring is to die for!” She shouted, I queued her to quiet down.

“People will think the wrong thing, Andrea,” I warned. She giggled and took her sisters arm as the two talked about the news to be shared.

“Please, dad knew that you would want to do this eventually. If he didn’t, he sucks at knowing you,” Andrea brushed off all our fears.

Natalie didn’t seem convinced.

As we walked into the Crenshaw estate, Natalie’s family welcomed us in. Her mother pulled me into a stiff hug and her father shook my hand. We went to the library room to have coffee, tea and scones.

“So, we want to hear about Santorini, how did it go?” Natalie looked at me and smiled.

“It was perfect, the island was gorgeous, we swam, rode vespas, danced, broke plates, shopped, the works,” Natalie told her mother as she sipped her tea.

“And I see Ryan picked you out a lovely gift,” she admired the ring on Natalie’s finger.

“Yes, he did, it’s Harry Winston,” Natalie emphasized where it was from to her mother and saw her smiled grow.

“Good choice,” she said to me. I finally felt a little more in with her family.

But I was waiting for the crash to come.

“So, everybody, daddy, I wanted to let you know that I am going to be looking for housing in Gainesville this week,” she said. Her mother looked a little taken aback and her father crossed his arms. Andrea watched as the scene played out.

“Natalie, you haven’t even been dating for a year, you can’t just move in together, it’s not a stable choice,” her mother said.

“I didn’t say we were moving in, I said I was looking for housing, mom, we’ve been dating for six months, our whole relationship has been plane rides and visits to one another and it’s time we take the next step of living in the same city,” she explained evenly.

“And he can’t move up here? Natalie you have the more stable work, why can’t he move up here?” Her father said in a very harsh tone, speaking as I was not in the room.

“Ryan is in the room, dad, and his coach, his trainer, his team, they’re all in Florida, until the Olympic trials, we are going to live in Gainesville,” she said in a final tone.

“But that’s years away! You’re going to live in that wretch of a town for years? Natalie, you won’t even be able to find proper housing,” her mother began tearing up as she thought of the lack of class the city had.

“It may not be a posh town, mother, but it’s not an impoverished city full of hobos, it’s very endearing, and dad, I’m not quitting, I’m just asking if I could be transferred to the Jacksonville offices. I would do everything the same,” she explained further.

“Which will still mean traveling at least twice a week, so it’s not like you’d get to come home every night to see Ryan at dinner,” he told her.

“And that’s understood but at least I could see him more than random weekends,” she looked to me and smiled.

“You said that in a few years you could move, does that mean you’re thinking long term together? Ryan, is that what you want too?” Her mother finally spoke to me. I cleared my throat.

“Yeah, I guess we are thinking long term,” I told them, her father eyed me harshly.

“You guess? This family doesn’t roll off guessing, we like certainty, especially for our daughters, if you can only guess, I don’t want this happening, I’m not going to see my daughter pack up and move away for a guess. Not after all that has happened,” her father was clearly not happy with me but I could tell he loved his little girl.

“Look, I can’t say we are definitely going to make it because I don’t know but I can say that looking at it, yes, I’m here long term, the plan is long term, I know you care about your daughter, sir, and I do too, but how are we going to even begin to make it permanent if we only continue seeing each other here and there?” I said. I think her father began to come around.

The family was quiet for a moment. Her mother and father looked to one another.

“I’ll put in the transfer for Jacksonville, but, you are no longer PR executive, in that office, that’s below you, Natalie, I want you to run the Jacksonville offices,” he said to Natalie. She looked baffled.

“Daddy, I’m not qualified to run the office, that’s like, I don’t even know what that entails!” She panicked.

“One, you’re a Crenshaw, don’t ever say you’re not qualified and two, you’re not running the whole company, I am, your job will just be oversight, making sure things are running smoothly, meeting with me and our investors, that way you’re not traveling as much as your old position,” he told her. Natalie stood and hugged her father.

“And I want a decorator to come in to wherever you move, you’re not living in vile,” her mother spoke up. Natalie hugged her mother as well.

Natalie was actually doing it, we were going to live in the same city, seeing each other more than ever before.

Things were about to get real.